Mount students start academic year with new majors, updated dorms

After a record pool of applications for the incoming class, the College of Mount St. Joseph will welcome back students including more than 300 freshmen, on Monday, August 26 with a wing of renovated residence hall rooms and a renovated main entrance/lobby, along with new programs and three new deans.

Students have new fields of study to consider, including four majors in informatics and educational studies. New minors are now available in computer science and leadership and civic engagement. Also new are fully online degree completion programs including RN-BSN, criminology and multicultural special education in January.

Three new deans will also lead the divisions of business, health sciences and arts and humanities. Jamal Rashed, Ph.D., comes to the Mount after serving as dean of business at Northern Michigan University. Sue Wajert, Ph.D., will lead the health sciences division and Mike Sontag, Ph.D., will lead arts and humanities after serving as interim dean since February.

“It’s going to be an exciting year at the Mount since we’re implementing our Vision2020 strategic plan that we announced in April,” said Tony Aretz, Ph.D., president of the Mount. “We have exciting speakers coming on campus this year and other new programs we’re kicking off this fall.”

One of those programs is the Talent Opportunity Program (TOP). TOP allows students who have completed the gold level of a series of career development classes to have the services of a third party career coaching firm—on the Mount’s dime—if they have not found a professional job more than six months after graduation.

The west wing of the Seton Hall residence facility was renovated and now features rooms with new furniture, paint, fixtures, and flat screen televisions in the hall community room. The main entrance in the lobby outside the admission office which welcomes students to campus, was also redecorated.

The media are welcome to come to campus to take back-to-school photos and video. Please call Jill Eichhorn at (513) 244-4481 or (513) 673-6047 if you would like to come out.

The College of Mount St. Joseph is an undergraduate and graduate Catholic college that provides an interdisciplinary liberal arts and professional curriculum emphasizing values, service and social responsibility.